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Sales Statistics From Developers Part 3

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Here we are again! I know how much people enjoy statistics (snore!), but when it comes to Linux and how well games perform on it we all need to see.

You can see parts 1 and parts 2 on those links.

First of all thank you to all developers who replied to me on it, as developers lead very busy lives taking time out to email us takes time away from developing, paperwork and their personal lives.

So, without more rambling from me here we go!

FLASHOUT 2
16.1% of Steam sales are Linux since release, and a comment their CEO:

Michal Stepien, CEO Jujubee Games StudioWe are big fans of Linux here at Jujubee especially due to the freedom that Linux users can enjoy. From the very beginning we wanted to support this platform and we are very pleased that so many Linux users made the decision to give FLASHOUT 2 a go. I can reveal that we have plans to release even more games for Linux and our next project, the story-driven turn-based RPG title Spellcrafter, that greenlit just a few days ago, is a great example because it will be running on Linux as well. Thank you all for your support and we hope you'll like the game as much as we enjoy creating it!


The Fall
Linux sales represent 4.5% of their gross revenue on Steam, and 4.2% of all activations, which includes Humble Steam key sales and activations from Kickstarter.

The developer had this to say about Linux support:

John WarnerIt's incredibly difficult to discern weather or not it's worthwhile to support Linux, but I'm certainly glad that I did, for lots of reasons, not the least of which was just to get an idea for what my numbers would be. Along the way, I've found that the Linux community is filled with great people and have made at least one great friend in the process. I also think that it's a growing platform, and being aware of it now and getting a sense for Linux development is a very good thing I think... so, long story short - I'm glad I did it. However, there are other issues as well. There have been a number of Linux users who have had some very unusual bugs. I am working to support these folks and fix their issues (I'm incredibly thankful for them for buying the game), but at the same time, there's a part of me that would rather trade the 4.5% I generated to simply not have any of the issues. There's something silly about spending time to fix issues that a small percentage of people are experiencing when I could be spending my time focusing on larger platforms with more standardization (read: consoles)... but like I said above, I'd also be trading my new friendships and useful data along the way, so I'm glad I'm in this situation.


Rust
The awesome guys at FacePunch made me a fancy graph for this one and then tweeted it out after my request, so by the time this is published it's probably older news if other sites pick it up.

Click to make it bigger

So, since we covered Rust in our last two articles it was 0.4% January, 0.55% February and now 1% July, so it is steadily going up, but sadly still nothing even close to Mac. We will contact the Rust guys again around the end of the year to see if it has gone up any further.
When we asked them what they thought about the numbers they said this:

@gamingonlinux Kind of exactly what we expect. Supporting osx/linux isn't for the money, it's just the right thing to do.

— Rust (@playrust) July 14, 2014


Can't argue with that, and anyone who does it like that deserves our respect for helping our platform grow.

Spy Chameleon
8.7% of the Spy Chameleon sales have been from Linux. The developers also had this to say:

QuoteWe wanted to release the game in Linux because for us is important that Spy Chameleon - RGB Agent is available for every computer and Steam user. We chose Unity as our engine because, among other reasons, it makes easier to make builds for every platform.


Blockstorm
Linux installation 5%
OSX installation 10%

The developers mentioned this about how they feel about Linux:

QuoteThere is a lot of potential in Linux for home users. High internet security and a lot of open source software.
We think the game industry will start to porting on Linux more games in the future.


Quest of Dungeons

@gamingonlinux Looks pretty close to my own stats from Quest of Dungeons. But Linux was released 2 months after pic.twitter.com/UvO2MAU1OA

— David Amador (@DJ_Link) July 28, 2014


Added this one after this article went live

Far Sky
0.89% Linux. I was actually surprised at how low that is for such a good looking and well reviewed game!

The developer noted this about how they feel:

QuoteIt is of course way lower than Windows and Mac, but it is an important platform since the Linux community is really present over the Internet. I used Linux everyday for almost two years for work, it just felt right for me to port the game on it. One of the reasons why I made the game in Java is for the platform portability. Making a Linux build is pretty easy.


Again, thank you to all developers involved.

So, hopefully this gives a reasonable idea of how good/bad the Linux gaming scene is right now for developers. It's always interesting to see what developers think about supporting Linux given that we don't yet have that big a marketshare.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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15 comments
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Xpander Jul 29, 2014
Quoting: scaine...
Ah right - I've just googled it and it was comments that Facepunch's Garry Newman (of Garry's Mod fame) made about Linux. Lots of comments, mostly whine-noise about low sales of Garry's Mod on Linux... as if it hadn't been out for 7 years before being released on that platform. 7 years. Does Newman think Linux users just spring into existence? Or perhaps we migrate from other platforms and thanks to steamplay, already have hundreds of previous purchases from there. Unbelievable.

I would love to support Facepunch, as at least someone in that company appears to "get it", given that comment above, but honestly, I can't bring myself to give this guy my money. Thanks to his ill mannered comments, I actually now regret owning his game from when I was Windows.

And the worst part of that is, I only bought it for one, single LAN-party when there was a bit of peer pressure to buy it for this one mod everyone was wanting to play. Can't even remember its name.

He's Garry, you shouldn't take him seriously. He rants about many things, not only about linux.
mrpoundsign Jul 29, 2014
My hypothesis is that releasing a stable Linux build when releasing the main game is probably one of the leading factors in sales percentage discrepancy. Having to wait 2-3 months to get it on another platform, the hype has largely died down. This also makes the stats really hard to take as non-skewed. It would be interesting to correlate other stats such as time-from-release-to-linux, platform feature parity, and as pathetic as it is something like metascore, as all of these things affect initial sales.

And yes, totally getting rust. <3 the attitude.
mrpoundsign Jul 29, 2014
Oh yeah and often the linux version isn't available until after sales are over or near-over. So are the percentages in dollars or units?

The other thing that skews stats is people like me who will buy a game on win, with the promise of a linux version, and play it initially on windows until the linux version is out; Then I will play exclusively on linux. I don't do this any more, as I have been burned a few times now (usually due to owning 2 monitors). My wintendo is much less capable, so I much prefer native linux.
EKRboi Jul 29, 2014
Like others have said.. releasing the linux version months after the win or win/mac release kills those linux numbers. Not too many people, myself included, will wait for a game to release on linux months after initial release when they can play it now in win or wine. If they all could just get on the ball and release all platforms at the same time I'm certain the numbers would be better.
Hamish Jul 29, 2014
Quoting: GuestThat’s obviously a troll…

And I was obviously being sarcastic. At least, I though I was...

Quoting: EKRboiNot too many people, myself included, will wait for a game to release on linux months after initial release when they can play it now in win or wine. If they all could just get on the ball and release all platforms at the same time I'm certain the numbers would be better.

Am I really that strange for only ever hearing about a game when the Linux version comes out?

The fact that I do not even have a Windows install around does help though...
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